when the light hits your eyes
by qaby
Summary: Damon/Caroline, 2x01. "She was used to the dysfunctionality, and she didn't know how to be around him when his abuse was all she'd ever known."


**A/N: **I adore this couple. They might have the most abusive relationship I've ever seen, but they're gorgeous and entertaining and have scorching chemistry. While DE owns my TVD heart, I must admit that I will always love this ship as well, so I squeed when Damon offered to help Caroline, and I knew I had to write this soon. Title comes from the song "Just Tonight" by The Pretty Reckless.

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Caroline fought against the weakness threatening to overcome her and stirred underneath the questionable fabric of the hospital sheets when she heard a soft knock at the door, immediately regretting the decision when she felt a blinding pain stab her side. She inhaled sharply and grunted as she tried to position herself to her liking.

"Having fun?"

She distinguished his voice quickly, and her heart pounded wildly against the confines of her chest while lingering feelings and an undercurrent of unexplainable fear pulsed through her veins at a rapid pace. She closed her eyes for a moment before raising them to meet his gaze.

She didn't reply, and his mouth turned down into a petulant pout as he made his way over to the side of her bed. Her eyes darted around his face frantically, knowing that she should be afraid. Knowing that the man in front of her was responsible for the gaping hole in her memory.

"Don't look so sad, princess. You should be happy to see me."

Never let it be said that she wasn't persistent, so she would be damned if she was going to let her abusive ex-boyfriend walk all over her. Life-threatening injuries or not, Caroline Forbes was _not_ anyone's doormat.

"And why is that?" she whispered.

He inclined his head to the side, mildly impressed. Her banter was one of the only things he'd ever tolerated about her personality, and he was pretty glad to see that it didn't deteriorate.

"Because you loved me."

Her teeth grinded together at the smugness that tinged his tone and she stared up at him hotly beneath her eyelashes. She knew that if her body was functioning properly and she was allowed to move around more than a couple of inches, her fist would be formally introduced to his face.

"No, I _didn't_," she bit out. His eyes widened in apathetic surprise, and she bit the inside of her lip. "But I could've."

"Huh." He didn't really feel like reminiscing about things that didn't really matter, so he reached into the inside pocket of his infamous leather jacket and pulled out a lily, handing it to her. "Your favorite."

She swallowed, her fingers wrapping around the stem. She hated how her heart swelled. "You remembered."

He rolled his eyes. "All the time we were together, you wouldn't stop yapping. I was bound to listen to _something_ you said."

She breathed a chuckle and winced when the simple action made her insides churn. His eyebrows furrowed as his eyes raked over her frame, noting the faint bruises and cuts with distaste. Something akin to guilt settled in his stomach when he spotted the barely visible mark on her neck that would always serve as a reminder of his manipulative ministrations.

"I'm sorry," he blurted out.

The way his lapis lazuli eyes burned fervently into her own let her know that he was being sincere, and a ghost of a smile tugged at her lips. Although she was happy to know that he felt repentment, she wasn't used to this. She wasn't used to him being..._redeemable_.

Save the sweet stuff for Matt.

This was _Damon_.

What Caroline was used to was Damon pushing her around, burning her self-esteem to the ground while her uncontrollable and nonsensical feelings for him ate away at her heart. She was used to the dysfunctionality, and she didn't know how to be around him when his abuse was all she'd ever known.

"Please, Damon. The only thing you're sorry about is not being the one to put me in this hospital bed." The skin of his forehead wrinkled and his shoulders slumped imperceptibly. She tried to scoff, but what came from past her lips was just a wispy sigh, and she cursed herself for sounding so weak in front of him. Again. "Why are you _really_ here?"

He shrugged a shoulder, her skeptical tone bringing out of the woods of guilt. He hated it there. It was where Stefan undoubtedly spent the majority of his free time, and Damon didn't need to become more like his younger brother than he already has, because this _saving Caroline _deal?

_Not necessarily his thing._

"I'm here to save your life."

She raised an eyebrow. "Unless you're a doctor with a master's degree, I don't think you'd meet the requirements, and you're not coming anywhere _near_ me."

He mentally gave her points for trying to sound strong, but the fact of the matter was that she was just a crumpled heap on top of a hospital bed, and _honestly_? A century-and-a-half old vampire versus an injured human girl?

You do the math.

"_Au contraire, mon cheri_. I already talked to your nurse. Unless you let me do what I need to do, you _will _die."

What he didn't mention is the part where he compelled the nurse into giving him all the confidential information, but hey, you gotta leave _something_ to the imagination, right?

He couldn't really wrap his head around the idea though.

If he didn't feed her his blood, she would _die_. The central idea was the amount of pain her death would bring to Elena, and his determination for this certain objective grew stronger as he was reminded of his motivation.

There was also the little glimmer of something that told him that there was a part of him - a very, _very_ small part - that wouldn't want anything wrong happening to Caroline. Despite her tendency to annoy him so much that he wanted to pull his hair out or, more preferably, snap her neck, he hated to admit that he _cared_ for the girl. Just _slightly_.

Yeah, he was surprised too.

Personally, he believed Elena was to blame.

He ran his finger down her cheek softly, and she could feel something tug at her memory. She got a brief, shadowed glimpse of them in her room before her mind went blank once more and she was left feeling more puzzled than ever.

"Why are you being like this? Sweet, I mean."

He placed his hand on the pillow beside her head and leaned in, pushing a blonde tendril behind her ear before pressing his lips to her forehead in a feather-light kiss, hoping to convey all the things he couldn't say in the contact. She breathed a sigh at the familiarity of his lips on her skin and the corner of her lips turned up into a smile.

"Because I'm going to make you forget it."

She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, but he bit into his forearm and placed it in front of her mouth so quickly that it was all just a blur of motion. She grimaced when she tasted the metallic tinge of the blood on her tongue, but her disgust quickly faded away, only to be replaced with _need_ when she felt something surging from deep within her, almost as if she was being _lifted_.

She didn't even bother to mentally question everything that just happened, instead training her thoughts on the fact that it might've been their own twisted version of closure.

Too bad she won't even remember it.

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**Reviews are love.**


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